The Ministry of Healing

INTRODUCTION TO THE MODERN CROSSREACH EDITION

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Chapter 1

THE QUESTION AND ITS BEARINGS, INTRODUCTORY

Have there been any miracles since the days of the Apostles? To this question the common answer has been, in our times at least, a decided no. A call recently put forth in one of our religious journals, asking the opinion of ministers, teachers, and theological professors on this point was very largely answered; and the respondents were well-nigh unanimous in the opinion that the age of miracles passed away with the apostolic period. The statement contained in several of these replies gave evidence indeed that the question had never been deeply investigated by the witnesses. In some instances there was a perhaps unintentional evading of the issue by the question What is a miracle? But there were only one or two replies which gave countenance to the view that miracles are possible in all ages, and have appeared more or less numerously in every period of the Church’s history. If, then, the little book which we now send forth shall win any assent for its views, it will not do so, in all probability, because its sentiments accord with the opinion of the majority of the theologians of the day.

It is therefore no enviable task which we have undertaken. The demand of the times is rather in the contrary direction from that in which our conviction carries us. The strongest requirement now pressing on the Church is for an adaptation of Christianity to the age,—so we read not long since. How presumptuous it will look, in the face of such an utterance, for one to set his face squarely in the opposite direction, and insist that the greatest present demand is for the adaptation of the age to Christianity. And not that exactly; for this present evil age can never be made to harmonize with a religion that is entirely heavenly in its origin, in its course, and in its consummation. But we trust it will not be presumption to say that the Church in every direction needs to be reshaped to the apostolic model, and reinvested with her apostolic powers. For is it not apparent that between the indignant clamor of sceptics against primitive miracles, and the stern frowning of theologians upon any alleged modern miracles, the Lord’s people are in danger of being frightened out of their faith in the supernatural? We speak of what we have often noticed. A simple-hearted believer comes into the assembly of the Church and details some remarkable answer to prayer—prayer for healing or prayer for deliverance—in response to which he alleges that God has wrought marvelously; and then we notice the slowness and shyness with which Christians turn their ears to the story, and the glances of embarrassment amounting almost to shamefacedness which they cast towards the minister, as though appealing for rescue from the perilous neighborhood of fanaticism to which they have been drawn. This we have often observed, and on it we have pondered, and from it we have raised the question again and again whether the Church has not drifted into an unseemly cautiousness concerning the miraculous. As a religion which is ritual is sure to put vestments on her ministers sooner or later, so a religion which is rational rather than spiritual will be certain to put vestments on the Lord’s providences, insisting on their being draped in the habiliments of decent cause and effect, and attired in the surplice of natural law and order, lest God should make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations. The world dislikes the recurrence of miracles. Yes, without question. For the world which by wisdom knew not God is very jealous of everything which it cannot explain or reproduce. A miracle is something very embarrassing to mock professors. Doubtless; for it brings such people uncomfortably near to God. Accustomed only to such manifestations of the Infinite as have been softened and assuaged by passing through the medium of the natural, they cannot bear this close proximity to the Cause of causes. He that is near to me is near to the fire is one of the sayings which Apocrypha puts into the mouth of Christ. How shall they whose feet have never put off their shoes of rationalism and worldliness come near the burning bush, and into open vision of the I AM?

But it is not worldlings and false professors alone that dislike miracles. Real true-hearted and sincere disciples are afraid of them, and inclined to push away with quick impatience any mention of their possible occurrence in our time. In most cases probably this aversion comes from a wholesome fear of fanaticism.

On which point permit us to observe,—that fanaticism is in most instances simply the eccentric action of doctrines that have been loosened from their connection with the Christian system. Every truth needs the steadiness and equipoise which come from its being bound into harmony with all other truths. If the Church by her neglect or denial of any real doctrine of the faith thrusts that doctrine out into isolation and contempt, thus compelling it to become the property of some special sect, she need not be surprised if it loses its balance. She has deprived it of the conserving influence which comes from contact and communion with other and central doctrines, and so doomed it inevitably to irregular manifestations. If the whole body of Christians had been faithful to such truths as that of the second coming of Christ, and scriptural holiness, for example, we probably should never have heard of the fanaticism of Adventism and perfectionism. Let a fragment be thrown off from the most orderly planet, and it will whirl and rush through space till it is heated hot by its own momentum. It is nothing against a doctrine in our minds, therefore, that it has engendered fanaticism. One who studies the history of important religious revivals, indeed, must take quite an opposite view, and suspect that it is a proof of the vitality of the truth around which it has gathered.

Who that is acquainted with the religious movements led by Luther and Wesley, and with the endless extravagances that followed in their wake does not see that in the instances the stir produced came from the writhing of wounded error rather than from the birth of falsehood, from the contortions of the strangled serpents around the cradle of the new Hercules come for reformation. So let us be less disturbed by the unaccustomed stir of truth than by the propriety of dead and decent error.

But we are offering no apology for fanaticism and providing no place for it in connection with the doctrine we are defending. It need have no place. We believe in regeneration, the work in which God comes into immediate contact with the soul for its renewal. That is no less a miracle than healing in which God comes into immediate contact with the body for its recovery. In the one case there is a direct communication of the divine life to the Spirit, which Neander calls the standing miracle of the ages; in the other there is a direct communication of the divine health to the body which in the beginning was called a miracle of healing. An able writer has said, we believe with exact truth: You ask God to perform as real a miracle when you ask Him to cure your soul of sin as you do when you ask Him to cure your body of a fever.1 Yet who of us thinks of encouraging fanaticism by preaching and praying for man’s regeneration? Enthusiasm has often kindled about this truth, indeed, when it has had to be revived after long neglect and denial, but not when it has been held in orderly and recognized relation to other cardinal doctrines.

Very beautifully did one say of the sister of the poet Wordsworth, that it was she who couched his eye to the beauties of nature. More than anything else is it needed today that some one couch the eyes of Christians to the realities of the supernatural. Holden of unbelief, filmed with suspicion and distrust, how many of the Lord’s truest servants would be unable to discern His hand if He were to put it forth in miracles! It is not easy for those whose daily bread has always been forthcoming, with no occasion for the raven’s ministration, to believe in miraculous feeding. The eyes that stand out with fatness would be the last ones to catch sight of the angels if they should chance to be sent with bread to some starving disciple. To whom says the Lord, Anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see? Is it not to those that say, I am rich and increased in goods, and in need of nothing? If, then, we protest that we do not see what others claim to have witnessed of the Lord’s outstretched hand, it may because of a Laodicean self-satisfaction into which we have fallen. When shall we learn that the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him most deeply, and not of necessity with those who have studied the doctrines most deeply? And so, if the eyes long unused to any sight of the Lord’s wonder-working are to be couched to the realities of the supernatural, it may be some very humble agent that shall perform the work,—some saintly Dorothea of Mannedorf at whose feet theologians sit to learn things which their utmost wisdom had failed to grasp, or some Catharine of Siena who speaks to learned ecclesiastics with such depth of insight that they exclaim with astonishment, Never man spoke like this woman. In other words, let us not be too reluctant to admit that some of God’s children in sore poverty and trial and distress, and with the keener faith which such conditions have developed, may have had dealings with God of which we know nothing. At all events, be not angry, O you wise and prudent, at those Christians of simple faith who believe with strong confidence that they have had the Savior’s healing touch laid upon them.

Nor should we unwittingly limit the Lord by our too confident theories about the cessation of miracles. The rationalist, jealous of any suggestion that God in these days may cross the boundary line that divides the natural from the supernatural, cries out against the dogma of Divine interference, as he names it. The traditionalist, viewing with equal jealousy any notion that the Lord may pass the line that separates the apostolic from the non-apostolic age, and still act in His office of miracle working, sounds the cry of fanaticism. But what if some meantime should begin to talk about the crown rights of Immanuel, as the old Covenanters did, insisting on His prerogative to work what He will, and when He will, and how He will, without our compelling it to be said of us and of our century that He could not do many mighty works among them because of their unbelief? Certainly the time has come for us to make use of all the Divine assistance that is within our reach. If there are any residuary legacies of power and privilege accruing to us since the fathers fell asleep, and yet remaining unclaimed, every consideration is pressing us to come forward and take possession of them. For observe what confessions of weakness our Protestant Churches are unconsciously putting forth on every hand. Note the dependence which is placed on artistic music, on expensive edifices, on culture and eloquence in the pulpit; on literary and social entertainments for drawing in the people, and on fairs and festivals for paying expenses. Hear the reports that come in at any annual convention of Churches, of the new organs and frescoings and furnishings, and of the—not saints’ festivals—but strawberry festivals and ice cream festivals and flower festivals and the large results therefrom accruing. And all this from Churches that count themselves to be the body of Christ and the habitation of God through the Spirit! Is not this an infinite descent from the primitive records of power and success—the Lord confirming the word with signs following, and the preaching which was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power?

How deeply we need the demonstration of the Spirit in these days! We have not utterly lost it, indeed. When men are renewed by the Holy Ghost, and give the world the exhibition of a life utterly and instantly transformed, that is a master-stroke for our divine religion. And that is all we want, most will say. But did such ever witness an instance of a drunkard cured in a moment of enslaving appetite by the prayer of faith—the opium habit which had baffled for years every device of the physicians broken and utterly eradicated by the direct energy of God’s Spirit—the consumptive brought back from the edge of the grave, or the blind made to see by the same power, after long years of darkness—and the glowing love, the exultant thankfulness, the fervid consecration which almost invariably follow such gracious deliverances? If they have not, they have not witnessed a sight that has within our own time and knowledge extorted conviction from the most reluctant witnesses.

These are some of the practical bearings of the question before us.

It is not our purpose in this volume to define a miracle any further than we have already done so. For the definitions generally given are widely variant; and it is easy for a disputant to evade facts by entrenching himself behind a definition. We prefer rather to appeal to specimens of acknowledged miracles, and then to press the question whether there have been any like them in modern days. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles as follows: And it came to pass, that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux; to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him, and healed him.2 This is conceded, we suppose, to be a miracle of healing. Has anything of the same sort occurred in the Church since the days of the apostles?

Again it is written in the same book: "And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple: who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.